My little ways of escape

Feb 8, 2017Feb 12, 2017

Rome in January

Though Rome is at its coldest during the month of January, there are good reasons to go and visit still. We visited during this time and we weren’t disappointed.
So just to give it a bit of context…
In January of 2016, I was overwhelmed by the fact time has flown by so fast: my mum was turning 50soon!

It wasn’t a norm to get her gifts. At least, I can’t recall so. Perhaps, it was the fact I was too young or too broke back then? Nonetheless, I vowed to make it special from that point forward. So, I thought 🤔:
“What better way to give than travel?”

It’s possibly the best way I can think of to give back a mere percentage of what she’s sacrificed for me over the years. Besides, I’ve always wanted to travel myself (WIN WIN😜).

I had the idea but didn’t have a clue on where to begin; this was the first time I went on a holiday with my Mum and altogether for that matter.

I asked her where she would like to visit to which she answered “Rome” and off we went!

A wanderer was born.

We stayed at the Eurostars International Hotel which had a great Central location (after we finally found it, that is). It was a few minutes walk from the railway station (Stazione Termini) where we were dropped off and quite a few tourist attractions were also a walking distance from there. As we stepped off the coach, we were approached by a lady called Alessia who offered us tickets for a tour bus (there will be a lot of people like her, by the way). The prices were quite reasonable and quite frankly, I hadn’t planned how to navigate so we decided to opt in.

We took a 48 hour hop-on hop-off with ‘Green Line Tours’ to get around which passes through tourist attractions accompanied by an insightful audio guide (free disposable earphones included) which wasn’t mindblowing but did the job for our length of stay.

We developed a game plan (at least we thought so): we’ve decided we were to take the whole tour first, noting down where we would most like to visit and then taking it again to get off those stops. The most important in my mum’s list was visiting Vatican City and there wasn’t any in particular for me but Fontana Di Trevi definitely appealed to me through those google images :P. Either way, like I said, neither of us were disappointed.

Observations/Notes:

Rome’s architecture game is strong! Details, details, details. Do look up at those ceilings!

Most can communicate in English so if you’re looking for a place where you can explore yet not completely lost, you’ll find this a big plus.

It’s gorgeous Rome by day but definitely turns Rome-antic by night!

Visiting the Vatican City is a must and the museums are worth every penny.

Again, though January is a little chilly, it’s a great time to visit due to lack of crowd and it’s more affordable. Overall, I paid just under £180 for both flights and hotel for 2 people (£90 pp for 2 nights/3 days). This was booked through Expedia (flights with Ryanair).

People did not stop for pedestrians! Be it zebra crossings or the green man being present. Be careful. Seriously.

Unfortunately, the visit to Sistine Chapel was an underwhelming experience: it was so crowded you cannot pause to admire anything. Just imagine “Shh, keep moving” being said repeatedly as you walk through uncomfortably with a whole bunch of strangers in a dimly lit room.

Verdict:

I’d like to be visit Rome again some time in the future to see everything else it has to offer. I feel as though our game plan can develop some more in the meantime. Haha. I mean, we did throw our coins in at the Trevi Fountain so I guess that plan is looking up!